UNITED KINGDOM—Britain's High Court has sided with producers of adult content who have teamed up with Wagner & Co., a London-based law firm with experience targeting end-users it believes have downloaded their clients' copyrighted content without permission, to force ISP Virgin Media to hand over identifying information about hundreds of alleged porn pirates.
The case began last year, according to TorrentFreak, which reported today, "TorrentFreak has learned that last year four porn producers teamed up in an effort to force ISP Virgin Media to hand over the names and addresses of more than 1,500 subscribers said to have downloaded and shared adult content without permission.
"The companies, none of which appear to be based in the U.K., teamed up with Wagner & Co., the London lawfirm also working with [Ben Dover's] GoldenEye," added Ernesto for the site. "They are Mircom International Content Management & Consulting Ltd., Sunlust Pictures, Combat Zone Corporation and Pink Bonnet, Consultores de Imagem LDA." Two of the companies, Sunny Leone's Sunlust Pictures and Combat Zone, have engaged in end-user strategies in the United States.
Ernesto reached out to the Wagner firm for comment, but received none. he did hear from Virgin Media, however, whose spokesperson, Emma Hutchinson, told TF, "We have contested the validity of Wagner & Co’s claims (ongoing for 12 months), asking the Judge to thoroughly review the application and the supporting evidence. We have challenged the reliability of the software used to obtain evidence of infringement (FileWatchBT) and the accuracy of the data collected."
Unfortunately, as TF reported today, the High Court sided with Wagner's clients, though Hutchinson notes one bright spot in the ruling, telling Ernesto, “The original request was for double the number of addresses than we have been forced to disclose, now fewer than 800," and added, “We advise any of our customers who receive a speculative letter from Wagner & Co., who also represented Golden Eye International in action against O2 customers last year, to seek independent advice from organizations such as Citizens Advice.'
TF also significantly notes that, as AVN reported on in 2012 when the case was decided, "Restrictions placed on GoldenEye in previous procedures indicate that initial letters sent to Virgin customers by Wagner & Co. and its clients will not be as aggressive as the ones sent out by [previous end-user-targeting U.K. law firm] ACS:Law and will not contain a precise settlement amount. However, it is guaranteed that cash will be requested at some point."
The site also reminds its readers that of those people who receive notices from Wagner, and "panic and pay up," that "highly likely that those who admit nothing and stand firm will pay what they’ve always paid in U.K. cases – absolutely nothing."
